FUTURE TENSE IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

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1 HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF PEDAGOGY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FUTURE TENSE IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS Instructor: Bui Nguyen Khanh Student : Vu Mai Phuong Ho Chi Minh City, December 30 th 2011

2 Introduction English is a West-Germanic language, related to and classified alongside Dutch, Frisian and German while French belongs to Romance branch alongside Italian, Spanish, Romanian. English and French, two different languages from different branches, have their own typical grammars which have created great challenge for students of both languages to master. The tense system is one of the most difficult areas of both English and French grammars. The principal aim of this paper is to present some contrasts and similarities between the English and French tenses in general and in particular of three main ways of describing the action: Future Simple vs. Le futur, Immediate Future vs. Le Futur Proche and Future Perfect Simple vs. Le Futur Antérieur, illustrated with examples from the two languages. This contrastive analysis may also have implications for helping learners of English understand French grammar, especially regarding French tense. 2

3 Future tense in English a debate Different scholars from different schools of thoughts have been arguing about the issue whether or not English has tense. Based on the notion that tense refers to the way that verbs are inflected, the claim that tense does not exist in English is supported by the fact that the present tense and the preterit are the only tenses that are morphologically marked. However Declerck (1991, pp ) does not think this argument is valid since some other languages like French which has an inflectionally marked also use the present tense (progressive or non progressive) or construction aller (be going to) to express futurity; e.g. Il vient demain. (He comes tomorrow.); Il va le faire. (He is going to do it.). In addition, the verb form shall/will itself does establish time reference without needing time adverbials, context or pragmatics factors while the present tense does not. Furthermore, shall/will can combine with all English verbs, some of which do not allow the use of present tense or be going to to refer to the : e.g. Tomorrow I know/ am knowing/??am going to know why he did it. Contrast: English Future Tenses versus French Future Tenses Future Simple tense vs. Le Futur Simple Form: Like most Germanic language, the tense in English is marked by the use of a number of auxiliary verbs. The auxiliary will appeared as the ordinary marker of English simple tense. While the French simple tense has a full set of conjugations, the English equivalent, with all nouns and personal pronouns, just includes will and then an infinitive without to, which is the original form of a verb before any other endings or irregular forms have been added (Maxom, 2009). Je viendrai lundi. I will come on Monday. 3

4 Ils mangeront dans l avion. They will eat on the plane. Unlike in English, auxiliary is not required to express futurity in French. However, the tense of most French verbs is morphologically marked and therefore composed of the infinitive + the endings ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont. Singular Plural 1 st person je (I) -ai nous (we) -ons 2 nd person tu (you) -as vous (you) -ez 3 rd person il/ elle(he) -a ils/ elles (they) -ont (Futur - French tense conjugations, 2007) These endings are the same for all verbs. Many of oir verbs, and the irregular verbs of the er, -ir and re conjugations have changes in the stem but all stems always end in r (Lang & Perez, 2004). Usage: Both simple tense in English and le futur simple in French are used for upcoming events or events that are definitely going to happen. J irai au magasin demain. I will go to the store tomorrow. In French, the is used with expressions that imply a action, as in the expressions as soon as and when whereas in English the present tense is used. As soon as he returns, I will call. present Dès qu il reviendra, je téléphonerai. 4

5 (Morton, 2009) French expressions followed by the Future French expression aussitôt que dès que lorsque quand tant que English translation as soon as as soon as When When as long as (Erotopoulos, 2006) In journalism and other factual narration, the is often used in French even though the events did happen in the past. Né en Martinique, Aimé Césaire étudiera à Paris et redécouvrira l Afrique. Born in Martinique, Aimé Césaire studied in Paris and rediscovered Africa. past In French, the can also used to express a polite order or request in stead of the imperative form in English. Vous femerez la porte, s il vous plaît. Close the door, please. (Lawless, French tense - Le futur) Immediate Future tense vs. Le futur proche Form: 5

6 In English and in French, in addition to the simple tense, the immediate or le futur proche is used to express an upcoming event that will occur some time in the near (Morton, 2009). The immediate in English is the combination of the infinitive of a verb with a form of be going to. Likewise in French the verb aller is conjugated and followed with the infinitive of the action that is about to occur. Je vais chanter à la chorale. I am going to sing in the choir. (Sallee & Hebert, 2007) Ils vont manger dans 5 minutes. They are going to eat in 5 minutes. (Lawless, French tense - Le futur) Usage: Le futur proche is used when the action is considered nearer at hand than an action expressed by a verb in the simple tense. According to Vinay & Darbelnet (1995), French always uses the immediate when the action will take place immediately. In such case, English can use the general, which for French speakers would signal a possible delay. The following example brings out this difference: A visitor arrives at a friend s house and asks whether the friend is at home. He can get one of two answers; (a) (b) Il n est pas là, mais je lui dirai que vous êtes venu. Entrez. Je vais lui dire que vous êtes là. There is an uncertainty about the time the friend would be told about the visitor in the answer (a) and so the visitor would have had reason to be worried about the time he might have to wait. In English both answers would start with I ll tell him.. 6

7 Future perfect tense vs. le futur antérieur Form: The perfect in English is formed with the auxialiary will have + the past participle of the main verb. (Morton, 2009) participle. Usage: The French perfect is conjugated with the auxiliary verb in the plus past The English perfect tense as well as the French futur antérieur tense is used in order to stress an action that take place before another action of a verb in the, or before a specific time (Morton, 2009) or to describe a event from the standpoint of its completion (Offord, 2006). J espère que dans deux ans nous aurons achevé la rênovation de notre appartement. I hope that in two years time we will have completed the refurbishment of our flat. Son nouveau tube aura paru justed avant sa prochaine tournée. His new hit will have been released just before his next tour. However while English uses the present tense after conjunctions such as when (quand) and as soon as (dès que), French uses the futur antérieur. When he finishes this course, he ll understand French. present Quand il aura fini ce cours, il comprendra le francais. fufure French perfect can be used to indicate an assumption or probability regarding past events, whereas English the modal verb must should be used in conjunction with the past perfect instead of perfect (Lawless, French perfect - Futur antérieur). 7

8 Pierre n est pas ici; il aura oublié. Pierre isn t here; he must have forgotten. Luc est heureux; il aura gagné. Luc is happy; he must have won. Implications in language teaching Since French has been taught as a second foreign language for students whose major is English at many universities in Vietnam, through a contrastive view into tense in English and French, I would like to anticipate some problems Vietnamese students may have when learning this aspect of grammar and then discuss a few implications for the sake of teaching English and French as a foreign language. French and English tense have some similarities in the usages, which is considered to be an advantage for those English majors when they start learning French as a second foreign language. However, there are some differences that can cause interference in the production of French. Thus, many Vietnamese learners, accustomed to the use of English tense, get quite confused by all those French rules, especially when attempting to produce correctly tensed verbs. This problem is due to the fact that verbs are not conjugated to reflect futurity in English but the auxiliary like shall/will or the construction be going to is used to the effect. Therefore care should be taken to make sure learners have a firm understanding of how to use proper verb forms, especially irregular verb stems in French to indicate the tense as verbs in English tense are not morphologically marked like in French. Moreover, French language is sometimes using different tense in comparison to English for conveying a particularly specific meaning. Therefore when talking about French tense, teachers should also focus students attention to the difference of usage between the two language such as: the must always be used in French instead of the present tense after 8

9 conjunctions like WHEN, AS SOON AS, AFTER. Recurrent practice also need to go hand in hand with explanations in such situations. No single tense in any language performs one function only. Just like the tenses in French are not only used of events but also instead of an imperative or in historic narrative. Some of these usages have their equivalents in English, others require an adjustment of perspective. In such situations, teachers should facilitate students learning and help avoid confusion by presenting, illustrating with situations and examples, then providing the practice of one use thoroughly before introducing a second use. 9

10 Bibliography Futur - French tense conjugations. (2007, September 21). Retrieved December 16, 2011, from South Burlington High School: Declerck, R. (1991). Tense in English: its structure and use in discourse (Vol. 1). London: Routledge. Erotopoulos, Z. (2006). French verbs for dummies. Indiana: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Lang, M., & Perez, I. (2004). Modern French grammar: a practical guide (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Lawless, L. K. (n.d.). French perfect - Futur antérieur. Retrieved December 29, 2011, from About.com: Lawless, L. K. (n.d.). French tense - Le futur. Retrieved December 16, 2011, from about.com: Maxom, M. (2009). Teaching English as a foreign language for dummies. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Morton, J. (Ed.). (2009). English grammar for students of French: the study guide for those learning French (6th ed.). Michigan: The Olivia and Hill Press. Offord, M. H. (2006). A student grammar of French. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sallee, B., & Hebert, D. (2007). The everything learning French book (2nd ed.). Massachusetts: Adams Media. Vinay, J.-P., & Darbelnet, J. (1995). Comparative stylistics of French and English: a methodology for translation. (J. C. Sager, & M.-J. Hamel, Eds.) Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 10